Slide miter saws are well known in the art as they provide extended cutting range over non-sliding miter saws. Non-sliding and slide miter saws both typically have a base, a rotatable table attached to the base, a saw assembly including a motor, a blade rotatable about an axis and driven by the motor, a cover housing covering the motor, an upper blade guard covering the upper part of blade, and a lower guard pivotably attached to the upper blade guard for covering the lower part of the blade. Accordingly, the saw assembly is pivoted downwardly for cutting a workpiece disposed on the base and table.
In addition, slide miter saws enable the user to move the saw assembly horizontally along the table. Most slide miter saws accomplish this by connecting the upper blade guard (and thus the saw assembly) to a pivot arm, which in turn is connected to a trunnion, which is fixedly connected to at least one rail, which is slidably attached to a support housing connected to the table (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,885). With such arrangement, the user would pull the saw assembly forwardly, move the saw assembly downwardly, then push the saw assembly rearwardly for cutting the workpiece.
Typically, the saw assembly can be pivoted about a substantially horizontal axis, i.e., the bevel axis, over a range of angles. Many miter saws can bevel between about −5° to about 50°. Other miter saws, known as double-bevel miter saws, can bevel between about −50° to about 50°.
It is desirable to provide a bevel stop mechanism to easily locate commonly used bevel angles.